Former Jeopardy Winner Charged with Child Sex Abuse Material

A teacher at an elite private school in New York City — who was a former Jeopardy! winner — has been arrested and is now charged with of soliciting sexually explicit images of children.

Winston Nguyen, a 37-year-old teacher at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, was reportedly arrested in front of students last month. Authorities now allege he pretended to be a fellow student on social media to convince — or attempt to convince — teenage students to send him “images of nudity and sexual performances,” the Brooklyn district attorney’s office announced in a press release on Thursday, July 25.

Nguyen is accused of using Snapchat to pretend to be a student at least 11 times between October 2022 and May 2024, sending messages to five girls and one boy, all of whom are between the ages of 13 and 15, the DA’s office alleged in its press release.

Per the DA’s office, the students with whom he exchanged messages all attended elite private schools around Brooklyn, including Saint Ann’s, Poly Prep Country Day School, Berkeley Carroll School and Packer Collegiate Institute.

While allegedly using the username “hunterkristoff,” prosecutors claim Nguyen contacted the first several victims with a video “depicting a nude boy masturbating” — who investigators later determined was a 16-year-old boy living in another state — before asking them to send images of them “nude or performing sexual acts.”

Prosecutors claim the former teacher also used an account with the username “haircutbongos” to allegedly solicit videos of a child “depicting them perform a sexual act” and paid them, before sharing the materials with other children. Both Snapchat accounts were traced back to IP addresses associated with Nguyen’s home in Harlem, prosecutors allege.

Brooklyn district attorney Eric Gonzalez alleged in the press release that local police’s investigation had “revealed extremely disturbing conduct by this defendant, who allegedly posed as a peer to coax teenagers to send him sexually explicit images of themselves, which he then allegedly distributed.”

“The fact that he was a teacher and a trusted figure among students make these allegations even more troubling,” Gonzalez added.

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Saint Ann’s School — where Nguyen was hired in 2020 and he worked as a middle- and high-school math teacher at the time of his arrest, according to The Daily Beast — serves many children of New York’s wealthiest and most famous residents, and charges up to $60,000 per year for high schoolers. Its alumni include Maya Hawke, the daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, Jennifer Connelly, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and fashion designer Zac Posen.

In a statement given to PEOPLE on Thursday, Saint Ann’s head of school Kenyatte Reid said that Ngyuen’s alleged conduct was “deplorable and a deep violation of the trust we extended to him as a member of our community.”

“It is our role and responsibility as educators to create an environment in which our students are safe and supported, and these alleged actions are antithetical to our work and our mission,” Reid added. “We are continuing to hold our students and their families with deep care and concern.”

The school added that Nguyen had been on administrative leave since his arrest on June 6, and he has since been terminated.

“We are in full support of the district attorney’s efforts as their investigation continues, and we are complying with any requests we receive for information that will assist their case,” Reid added in the statement.

Nguyen — who went home as a one-time champion with just over $10,000 in winnings (and $1,000 for coming in 3rd place the next episode) after appearing in a 2014 Jeopardy! episode — now faces charges of use of a child in a sexual performance, promoting a sexual performance by a child, first-degree disseminating indecent material to minors, third-degree conspiracy, third-degree criminal solicitation and endangering the welfare of a child, the DA’s office added in its press release.

His bond was set at $30,000 cash or $75,000 bond, and he is next set to appear in court on Oct. 17.

It’s not clear if he has retained an attorney to comment on his behalf.

The Brooklyn DA’s office noted in its press release that anyone with information about the case should email ReportSNAPCHATImages@brooklynda.org.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.